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code the various locales, as the warm golds and greens of Cleopatra’s
plush Egyptian palace contrast with the cool whites and blues of the austere
Roman villas. Composer Alex North follows up his work in Spartacus
(1960) with an Oscar-nominated musical score for Cleopatra that uses
avant-garde harmonies scored for large string ensembles (Solomon, 2001b,
331). The rhythmic music evokes each of the three romantic protagonists
on their intersecting epic journeys, until the various themes are woven
together at the end.
Cleopatra conforms to epic convention with a grand beginning, where
vibrantly painted titles dissolve into the opening frames of the film. North’s
score opens with a rousing version of the queen’s theme, both pompous
and playful, with an undercurrent of eastern sensuality suggested by the
chiming of cymbals and the sound of high-pitched flutes. The first half of
the film takes place between 48 and 44 bc, and focuses on the heroic
struggle of the young Queen of Egypt to save her country from absorption
into the expanding Roman Empire through her relationship with the
ascendant Roman general, Caesar. The traditional opening voice-over
sets up the first half of the film by highlighting the theme of civil war. A
similar solemn narration warning of Romans fighting each other will recur
later in the film at two significant points: before the start of the second
half at the battle of Philippi, and again before the climactic battle of Actium.
And so it fell out that at Pharsalia the great might and manhood of Rome
met in bloody civil war, and Caesar’s legions destroyed those of the great
Pompey, so that now only Caesar stood at the head of Rome. But there was
no joy for Caesar, as at his other triumphs. For the dead which his legions
counted and buried and burned were their own countrymen.
The innovation of this scene allows Harrison as Caesar to come in
immediately with his lines, as if continuing the prologue in his own harsh,
clipped tones: “The smoke of burning Roman dead is just as black, and
the stink no less. It was Pompey – not I – wanted it so.” The disgust and
exhaustion in his voice indicate the cruel toll exacted by the long course
of civil war between Romans, and hints at Caesar’s rising inclination to
explore a new mode of securing power. British actor Harrison inhabits
the role of Caesar with patrician confidence and worldly sophistication,
expertly navigating a range of registers from no-nonsense military commander
and imperious autocrat to debonair lover of Cleopatra and doting
father to his young son. Polishing his craft in countless stage and screen
appearances, Harrison was nominated for an Oscar for his performance
CLEOPATRA (1963) 143